WS- Point taken, Renowe. I know that I have a bit of trouble with small paragraphs and too little detail. It's a little habit I have to break. But, I'm glad you both like it. And I'm also glad I FINALLY have some reviews. chuckles Anyway, back to the story….

Oh, sorry for the wait. I've been very busy, and a bit of writer's block for this particular story….

Chapter Three: Good New Bad News

"Enough, Shade," Gold-Eye said. He kept scanning their surroundings, even though it was pitch dark. He was still nervous about this, since Shade's little betrayal the last time they had seen each other. Though, Robert, the one who had helped was Shade….

Shade brushed it off without so much as a glare in Gold-Eye's direction. "The Overlords are back, I hear," he remarked. "And because of that, so am I."

Ninde raised one eyebrow, and stated, "We've still got our eyes out in case you try to pull something like 15 years ago." Her voice was firm, and she had her eyes trained on Shade's.

Lerow smiled slightly. No one noticed, except for Shade who didn't do a thing. But she knew he had seen it. "I was told of what happened. Is there no reason that Shade might be truthful this time?" she asked. Her fake dog tag glinted in the faint light.

Gold-Eye winced. He had to admit, it was possible, but still… "I suppose—"

"Good," Shade interrupted. "At least someone is on my side. But, to the point. You didn't come here for a social call, I presume?"

Ninde sighed slightly, and shook her head. "No, no social calls here. We came to see if you would provide what you did the last time this happened. And if you would help us bring more children out of harm's way. You probably still have more knowledge about creatures and the Overlords than we do." She hated to admit it, but it had to be said.

"True. I do have more of that kind of knowledge. But why would you come to me instead of looking for someone else?" They all got a feeling that he was rubbing salt into the wounds. Lerow had no quarrel with him, though, so she didn't have a wound to rub it in.

Ninde narrowed her eyes slightly. She wasn't normally the kind of person to be cross, or to snap at anyone, but Shade was seriously pushing her…. "We don't know of anyone else. Now, will you agree or not?" she retorted, talking quickly so that she didn't say anything she'd regret.

"Of course I'll help. There's nothing else for me to do. The Overlords wouldn't accept me to help them, and I don't enjoy the same things that they do, anyway," he replied, his voice smooth, just annoying the others. For some reason, Lerow was the only one who didn't show anything like that.

"Good," Gold-Eye snapped. "Now, where do we start?"

"What!" Ninde exclaimed.

"You must have heard me," Lerow replied. It was nearly an hour later, and they were in another room in the Sub, this one with light, and no spiders or rats that were Shade's "eyes" everywhere in sight.

"Why would we do that? You haven't seen how shameless he is! We should find something else!" Gold-Eye exclaimed, and held Drum and Ella a bit tighter.

"Perhaps I haven't. But still, there's no other way, and it would be even more dangerous if we didn't." Her voice was firm, but not so much that they would feel like she was trying to make them. "If we take those two on the mission that Shade just assigned us, then they'll just be extra weight, and they'll slow us down. By doing that, we might not survive."

Ninde sighed, deep in thought. "True, true. But, what if he—"

"I won't," a voice snapped from a speaker overhead. They all but Lerow jumped slightly. "I will take care of them, you can be assured." His voice seemed slightly soothing….

"How can we be sure?" Gold-Eye retorted. "I mean, from what you've done before, I can't be sure your promises are going to be kept. You're not exactly the most honest person I've met."

"Agreed. Just why would we leave our two kids in your care?" Ninde's voice was high, as if she was straining to say—or not say—something.

Shade sighed over the intercom. "I admit, I made mistakes. But I have paid for them. Now, I only wish to make amends. You can trust me with Ella and Drum. They will not be harmed if I have any say in the matter, and I do and I will."

Gold-Eye shook his head firmly. He felt that it was his job to look out for them. It was always the father's responsibility to protect their wife and their children with their life. Ninde was old enough, and she could go. But he would never leave her alone where Shade could get to her. It was the same with his children, but he couldn't even take them; they were too small.

What to do? Ninde thought rapidly. They couldn't take the children, but by leaving them here, they might still be in danger… of course, Shade probably wouldn't do anything if he wanted her and Gold-Eye to do what he said…. "Alright, alright!" she snapped reluctantly.

Gold-Eye shot her a confused look. She shrugged. "Why would we, Ninde? There's no way I'm trusting him!"

"I don't trust him, either. But as long as he wants to be the leader here, he'll need us to cooperate. He knows that we won't cooperate if he does anything to Ella or Drum. So, I say we leave them in his care just until we get back."

He wanted to point out that might not get back, but if they brought the kids and didn't make it, which was even more likely with the two kids along, then they would go down, too. If they left the kids here, and Shade was trustworthy, then even if they didn't make it, then there was a chance that the kids would…. "Okay!" He didn't want to, but there was no other better choice that he could see.

"Good. Now, let's get ready for the mission." Lerow had been silent during the debate, but now she spoke up. "We don't have all day."

Ninde shot her a glance. Why was she so ready? No matter. Lerow was right; they did need to get going.

"Yes," Shade's voice boomed, "the supplies are through the door to your left. When you get them, I will unlock the room that goes from the hall to the hatch which leads outside."

Gold-Eye muttered something, inaudible to the others, to himself, and walked to the door that was, as Shade had said, to their left. He tried the knob, and since it was unlocked, opened it. There were a few dim lights in the room, and he saw a few rats—robots—in the corners. There were no furnishings in the room, except for a table in the middle. The walls appeared to be white-washed. On the table, there were three bags, like backpacks, almost. They were black, and seemed to have many things in them.

Ninde entered the room after Gold-Eye, and Lerow came next. The kids stayed at the door, not sure what was going on. They were both gripping each other for support. It was all so new and scary to them: voices coming out of the walls; bright lights; swords; the tense body language from both of their parents.

Ninde scanned the bags, and picked one out. There were many pockets, and she opened one of the zippers. There were a few bottles of water in each pack, and each had some rope, dried food, and a few other things that might prove useful.

Gold-Eye picked up the pack he had chosen and walked back to the door. Hen the others had done the same, they all walked out to the doorway.

Lerow climbed out of the manhole into the sunlight of dawn. Fortunately, they hadn't run into any Ferrets. But, Ninde had sensed them nearby many times. That was probably the only reason that they didn't run into any.

Gold-Eye still wasn't sure that it had been the right thing to do, leaving Ella and Drum in Shade's care, but he didn't see any other way they could have done it. So, he had to quit thinking about that, letting his mind wander, and concentrate on the task at hand: The mission.

There was the sound of a Screamer, but it was too far away to worry about it much. What they had to watch for were trackers. They were almost silent, along with Ferrets. Myrmidons were too large to be very stealthy.

"Which way?" Lerow asked. She didn't know how to get there, unlike the others. It wasn't a very well-known route among the modern world. It was practically only used the first time the Change came, but her parents hadn't told her about it. Surprise, surprise.

"Just follow us. You'll see," Gold-Eye replied careful to keep his voice down. He got a better grip on his pack and kept walking towards an alley to their right. Ninde knew the way, so she didn't need to watch him, but she did anyway.

Gold-Eye stopped, seeming to be in a trance. They all knew what was going on, even Lerow. He was having a soon-to-be-now vision.

A Screamer was near; it was screeching ear-splittingly…. On top of the building above them, a Myrmidon looked over the edge…. Trackers appeared everywhere, looking for any signs of humans….

The vision disappeared, and the Screamer screeched. Gold-Eye snapped into action, grabbing Lerow and Ninde's arms, and pulled the out of the alley, out of sight of the creatures. The Myrmidon put his head over the edge a split second after they were gone.

He didn't stop when they were out of the alley. He kept pulling on them down the road, trying to get away from the Trackers. If they stayed near, the tracking creatures would catch their scent, or whatever they do to find humans.

For a split second, he thought that he heard the footsteps of a pursuing Myrmidon. But, he didn't dare look back. It wouldn't help any whether he knew for sure that something was behind them or not. He wasn't going to stop one way or the other.

Lerow did look behind them though. She pulled on her arm, planting her feet, dragging Gold-Eye to a stop. "No one's coming after us. They must've found something more interesting," she said.

Ninde nodded. Her knuckles were in her mouth, and she was chewing. She pulled it out and said to them, "I can't tell for sure what they're after, but they're going for something else. We should keep moving just in case. Whatever they're after is fast, and they might stop pursuing it."

Lerow nodded. "Yes, I agree. We need an alternate route. Which way?" The question wasn't directed at anyone in particular.

Gold-Eye shook his head. "I don't think that there is an alternate route to where we're going." His voice made it sound final.

"Come on, there's gotta be!" Lerow replied, her brows furrowed. "I mean, whoever found this way might have found another one."

Ninde nodded. "Gold-Eye's right. This thing has been searched many times, and no sign of any other ways to get through." Her shoulders dropped, betraying her disappointment.

Gold-Eye noticed Lerow suddenly tense. She seemed to be staring at something behind them….No, she was staring right through them. She didn't twitch once.

A moment later, she snapped out of it, shaking her head, and pushing her hair out of her eyes. "What was that?" she muttered to herself.

"Lerow, are you okay?" Ninde asked, instinctually knowing that she wasn't. Was it…but no, it couldn't be.

"There's something coming." Lerow looked straight at them, and they both gasped. She had a white streak in her hair down the side of her face. It stood out vividly against her fairly dark hair. Her eyes held a sharp look, more than they had only a moment ago.

"What happened to you?" Gold-Eye asked, his brows pulled together into a frown. His eyes were narrowed. He already knew.

"I'll explain later, but we have to get out of here," Lerow said, her voice deep and commanding. Both of the blinked, but they did as she said.

Lerow heard something she knew that the others couldn't. It was a high-pitched whistle-like sound—as high-pitched as a dog whistle. And she could hear it. She didn't know how, but she did.

And the sound was getting louder.

"Come on! We'll go this way," Lerow said, leading them down an alley to the side of the road they had been on.

There were trash cans in the corners, and abandoned newspapers, out of date, littered the ground they stepped on.

Still Lerow kept running. Her long legs pumped hard, carrying her so swiftly and smoothly that the adults might have thought she was flying. But what Ninde and Gold-Eye really noticed was that her boots hitting the pavement made absolutely no sound at all.

"Where are we going and why?" Gold-Eye finally asked, out of breath. They had gone down a couple more alleys.

Lerow stopped as if she had been going only five miles an hour and turned around. Her wary eyes scanned the surroundings, and she seemed to be listening for something. Finally she nodded to herself as if she approved where they were, and looked back to the adults.

"So?" Ninde prodded.

"I heard something. It was high-pitched. Somehow, I knew it was too high-pitched for anyone else to hear it. It was either getting louder or getting closer, and I felt tremors in the ground. So, before anything caught up to us, I ran. The sound's faint now." Lerow shrugged.

"Oh." Ninde. She grimaced, and looked at Gold-Eye questioningly. "Did you feel it in the ground?"

"No."

"I don't know how you could miss it. But anyway, why were you guys staring at me?" Her eyes had lost the extreme sharpness again. Still, that didn't make much of a difference; she still looked pretty capable, with her determined face and two swords.

Gold-Eye hesitated, and said. "Look in a mirror when we get back to the Sub. Since the way is blocked to our next mission, I suppose that'll be our next stop."

They had been on their way to the old meat plant that the Overlords had used, to see if it was still in business. They would probably try to find another way later. For now, they were going to the Sub to ask Shade if Lerow was displaying Change abilities.

But they all knew, even Lerow, that there was no doubt—she had Change powers. And they might be the kind that would be a big help.

But, there was also something else that she had found using her new abilities—possibly another, new, creature. And it was something that not everyone could tell was near except for Lerow herself.

Typical: good news is always accompanied by bad.

WS- Well, I'm sorry this isn't as long as usual. As I said, writer's block.